


just for a little while

by metropocs



Category: Banana Fish (Anime & Manga)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-23
Updated: 2018-12-23
Packaged: 2019-09-25 02:07:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17112431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/metropocs/pseuds/metropocs
Summary: a quiet morning with ash and eiji. eiji wakes up, ash doesn't - it's the usual.





	just for a little while

_A frosty autumn morning. Flaky patches of snow and ice cover the sidewalks outside the bedroom window. Piles of quilts and blankets lay on the floor just beside the bed. Tossed over the edge by restless feet, it seems. The only protection the bed's inhabitants have against the freezing weather and drafty AC are themselves - limbs wrapped and tangled up amongst each other, a head pillowed underneath a chin, chilly fingers slipped beneath night shirts. It is the perfect painting of calamity - the calm before a storm, or perhaps relaxation and recuperation following a war._

Eiji Okumura wakes up with icy fingers against the bone of his hip. Tragically enough, this isn't an unusual position for him to wake up in - mornings where he had scrambled off the bed in a haste to get away from those awful blocks of ice range far and few in between, but nonetheless, he is stronger now. He only grumbles quietly to the air of their bedroom as he kicks the remaining sheets off of his legs and sits up as best as he can with a pair of arms wrapped around him.

Ash Lynx remains a motionless lump beside him despite his cuddle buddy's movements.

Not that Eiji expected any different. Few outside of himself and the gang have the fortune of seeing Ash when he is asleep, and few with the misfortune of ever having to wake him up - but Eiji often thinks about the duality of it. Cold blooded marksmanship mixed with a sharp, commanding voice that could put any boy's tail between his legs when he is awake. A grumpy, whiny, impossible-to-deal-with sloth who knows no reason when he is asleep. Eiji has little sympathy for his antics when they have somewhere to be, but days like these - with no business to attend to, just them and New York city at their fingertips - he has the time to be patient and marvel.

Just as Eiji starts to wiggle from Ash's grip (unthinkably tight), an "mmph" of protest comes from the lump. It was the first stage; Make Unintelligible Noises Once Eiji's Absence Has Been Noticed. This first stage hadn't existed a few months ago, but it had almost immediately made itself known after Ash had finally, finally mustered up enough ass - his words - to ask a question he had never allowed himself to. 'Can I stay with you?' he had asked that night, soft and vulnerable.

"Ash," Eiji says, resigned. "I have to get up and make breakfast. Like a functioning member of society. Unlike you. Don't you want breakfast?"

He is not above bribery, and he is most certainly not above giving out jabs when Ash can barely hear him, least of all respond. He must roll his punches when he can, he's learned - Ash will see it in him to obliterate him otherwise. Ash may be younger, but his taunts and teasing go far beyond someone of his years.

Another "mmph" seems to be his answer. The lump stirs for a single moment, and Eiji wonders if today will be the day he finally breaks out of this incredibly inconvenient habit - but then the lump settles back down into the sheets and does not move again.

Eiji sighs.

He forcibly disentangles himself just enough to slip out and position his fuzzy-socked feet on the floor. Bones and Kong had bought him a pack for Christmas, despite his insistence that their company was a suitable enough gift for him - 'Straight outta my own pocket, Eiji!' Bones had puffed his chest out proudly, hands on his hips. 'Wear 'em even when it's hotter than the devil's buttcrack outside!' The memory of it makes him smile.

The pale dawn light seeping in through the shutters is hardly enough to warm anything for more than a second or two, but he basks in it anyway, stretching his arms out and inhaling deeply. Eiji slides out of bed and steps on all the quilts and blankets they tossed aside during the night on his way to the bedroom door. A glance backwards at the still lump only widens his persistent smile, melting it into something fond and reverent.

Oh, how he loves him.

**Author's Note:**

> writing happy banana fish content is redundant because yes it's happy but it's what they could have had until yoshida decided to club them over the head so it makes me sad all over again. thank you for your time


End file.
